Some Desperate Glory cover art

Some Desperate Glory

Preview
Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Some Desperate Glory

By: Emily Tesh
Narrated by: Sena Bryer
Try Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $26.99

Buy Now for $26.99

About this listen

'Masterful, audacious storytelling'
Tamsyn Muir, New York Times-bestselling author of Gideon the Ninth

'An outstanding novel . . . one of the debuts of the year' Locus

'Deserves a space on shelves alongside genre titans like Ursula K. Le Guin and Octavia Butler'
Publishers Weekly

A thrillingly told space opera about the wreckage of war, the family you find, and the path you must forge when every choice is stripped from you. Some Desperate Glory is the highly anticipated debut novel from Astounding Award and World Fantasy Award-Winner, Emily Tesh.

All her life, Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the destruction of planet Earth. Raised on Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet.

Then Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to the nursery to bear sons, and she knows she must take humanity's revenge into her own hands. Alongside her brother's brilliant but seditious friend and a lonely, captive alien, Kyr must escape from everything she's ever known. If she succeeds, she will find a universe far more complicated than she was taught and far more wondrous than she could ever have imagined

'A profoundly humane and brilliantly constructed space opera that will have you cheering, swearing, laughing, and ugly-crying. It's perfect' Alix E. Harrow, New York Times-bestselling author of The Once and Future Witches

'This book is astoundingly good. An explosive and extraordinary story that I couldn't stop reading and will never forget' Everina Maxwell, author of Winter's Orbit

2024, Arthur C Clarke Awards, Short-listed

2024, Hugo Award Best Novel category, Short-listed

©2023 Emily Tesh (P)2023 Hachette Audio UK
Adventure Fiction LGBTQIA+ Creators Military Science Fiction Space Opera Time Travel Revenge
All stars
Most relevant
Some interesting concepts but feel this story is meant for screen. It has pace, the story moves with a lot of action & purpose but struggled with character development and the 'Dear reader'...oh dear.

Great narrator - working too hard, better as a screenplay

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

There are some really heavy themes in this book which is what attracted me in the first place, Child soldiers, forced pregnancy, Fascist military dictatorship, all this in the blurb got me really excited.

The themes don’t really come through in the narrative because there don’t seem to be any stakes because the universe has no rules. Basically the main character makes a mistake and gets an immediate do-over.

The author tries to bring in the “controversial” subject of pronouns and queerness to add tension but they are used in such a superficial way it almost feels cynical.

No stakes and no rules

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Loved this, its a great story about deradicalisation and the impacts of trauma. The characters are complex and Tesh does an excellent job of capturing the nuances of cognitive dissonance as the main characters struggle to free themselves from the fascist society they were raised in.

The narrator was also excellent and particularly good at doing all the different chatacter voices

100% recommend.

Compelling story about deradicalisation

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Fast-paced, entertaining science fiction with good character development and some solid gut punches. I enjoyed this book, and will read more by the author.

Satisfying Sci-Fi Romp

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This did not go where I expected it to, but was an incredibly satisfying read. Interesting, complex & relatable characters, flawless worldbuilding and masterful handling of some very challenging concepts. The narration did not let it down - a very accomplished rendition.

God this was good

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.